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Princess Diana Snuck Into Gay Bar in Drag with Freddie Mercury? New Book On Her Calls It ‘Fabulously Outrageous’
An excerpt from Dianaworld: An Obsession reveals the late Princess of Wales once disguised herself as a man to join Freddie Mercury and friends at London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
Even decades after her tragic death, Princess Diana’s life continues to fascinate—and surprise. In Edward White’s upcoming biography Dianaworld: An Obsession, a new light is cast on one of the most legendary and whimsical tales in royal folklore: the night Diana allegedly dressed in male drag to sneak into a gay bar with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
The biography, out April 29, revisits Diana’s lesser-known moments of rebellion, including her taste for secret nighttime adventures. The most outrageous of them all? According to actress Cleo Rocos’ memoirs, Diana once joined Mercury and Kenny Everett on a spontaneous outing to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern—a famed gay bar in London.
To pull it off, Diana donned a camouflage army jacket, tucked her hair into a leather cap, and hid behind dark aviator sunglasses. Rocos described the moment: “Scrutinizing her in the half-light, we decided that the most famous icon of the modern world might just... JUST pass for a rather eccentrically dressed gay male model.”
And it worked. The group made it through the night unrecognized. “It was fabulously outrageous and so bizarrely exciting,” Rocos recalled. After one drink, they left quietly, and Diana returned Everett’s clothes to him the next day.
The book places this tale among others involving Diana in disguise, like a low-key outing to Ronnie Scott’s jazz bar with Hasnat Khan. While some accounts may lean toward royal myth, they echo a deeper truth: Diana sought pockets of the world where she could shed her royal role and simply be herself.
Whether viewed as a surreal adventure or a Shakespearean tale of transformation, Diana’s night out at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern has become a beloved story among her fans—and a powerful symbol of her bond with the gay community. As author Edward White notes, for a woman who lived in palatial estates but longed for connection, slipping into disguise for one liberating night was more than rebellion—it was self-discovery.
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